Villa Linnea – Building Log Homes

It’s a miracle!

As you remember, we ordered the fireplace and requested that it is installed by October 31, 2011. Having the fireplace materials delivered was also a bit exciting, as it was slightly “lost in transit”.

After delivery started the calling and discussion about when the stuff will be carried in, when will the work start, how long will it take, etc… I have to admit I really had my doubts about how this would end with the last week of the month approaching and nothing had happened… But look at this! Quite a beauty, in my modest opinion anyway!

The fireplace materials were carried in Friday afternoon, the 21st, by our contact and another guy at Lahden Takka, where we bought the fireplace and installation from. At the same time we agreed the location of the fireplace on the foundation slab. The agreement was that installation would start the following Monday.

Well on Monday I couldn’t get a hold of our contact and was thus a bit worried about what’s happening, or more likely not. Then I got a call in the early afternoon from the bricklayer, who was actually on the way to the Villa. Yippee!!!

From there on things were really moving. The bricklayer called me again from the Villa and we went through all the details. He estimated he would most likely be ready on Thursday. Tuesday to Thursday the bricklayer called me a couple of times a day to check some of the finer details, and really on Thursday evening he was ready! I couldn’t believe it.

It was quite exciting waiting to see what the finished fireplace looks like. Our plan was to go see work in progress at the site, but unfortunately work situation just didn’t allow for a day visit during the week. Well actually, I’ve not yet seen the fireplace live, only the Other Half has, but the pictures speak for themselves.

As always, there’s been plenty to clean up after the work is done. I think the Other Half calculated a total of 3 large garbage bags full of various trash. Plus of course cleaning up inside all the trash there plus splatters from the mortar. Luckily it seems like there was no damage to the floors on the first floor, we did a decent job protecting them.

Overall (in case you haven’t noticed yet), we’re extremely happy with how the fireplace looks. Also the wood storage unit is great, though I doubt we’ll ever have it full of wood as we can’t reach to 250cm without a ladder… Our plan is to put tiles on the inside walls of the wood storage unit, so it’s easier to keep clean.

On the 2nd floor the chimney is located relatively well between the doors to the upstairs bedrooms, as you can see below, so maybe we can make something useful out of the upstairs lobby someday. That’s another plan to make maybe in a couple of years time.

Here’s still a picture of Villa Linnea from the outside, now with the chimney in the middle of the roof.

There’s still the metal work missing from the chimney on the roof, as that needed to be reordered due to some measurement mistake on the vendor’s side. That should come and be installed in a couple of weeks time.

Once that is in place I think it’ll be time to schedule the chimney inspection, one of the official inspections we must have according to our building permit. And in a few weeks we can also start planning to gradually heat the fireplace a little bit at a time. That will also be an exciting process…